


another thing that never happened to the doctor

by nostalgia



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Oldfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-05
Updated: 2007-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgia/pseuds/nostalgia
Summary: Every action has consequences.
Kudos: 4





	another thing that never happened to the doctor

The Doctor is perfectly happy where he is.

Nights like this, though, are when he remembers that once upon a time he wanted to get away from it all, from this place and these people. He has never told Borusa quite how grateful he is for stepping in and talking him out of it, all those years ago. Presumably, he'd have calmed down and run straight back to Gallifrey, humbled and evermore under suspicion.

~  
[The Movellans are defeated by the Daleks, wiped out, and swiftly forgotten. They become statistics to be quoted at a later date.]  
~

All the curious ones think about leaving. Not that there are many of those. And all these years later they still come to him and ask why he of all people stayed.

"You don't really fit in here, do you? No offence, of course."

What he tells them might be true, and at any rate it's what he honestly believes. He stayed because he didn't belong. And if they're old enough to remember the Presidents before him, they nod and begin to understand.

"There's so much to be done here," he says, "And so little to be done out there."

~  
[Leela of the Sevateem dies in her twenty-fifth summer, lost in the mountains when she took it upon herself to kill an evil god. Warned by her example, no one ever tries again.]  
~

He is oddly grateful that the opportunity to leave no longer exists. He has too many responsibilities here, and like everyone else he likes to pretend that he is irreplacable. His own children show no signs of wanderlust, and are understandably embarrassed to be reminded that he almost left. Most days, he is as disturbed by the idea as they are, but on nights like this...

~  
[Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is satisfied that the perimeter is secure. At dawn, they will break camp and head north. Although he has listened for three hours each day, the radio has been silent for a week.The last intelligence he received said Liverpool was still in the game. He's doing the best he can, and it just isn't good enough.]  
~

On nights like this, he sometimes wonders what would have happened if he'd run just that little bit faster.

~  
[The Earth is never liberated. The light from its destruction reaches Gallifrey sixty thousand year later.]  
~


End file.
